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Decorative Plaque: Man; and Griffin in Combat

900-800 BC

The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States

This small plaque was executed in the Phoenician style with symmetrical compositions, elongated figural proportions, and Egyptian subjects and motifs. Examples have been found throughout the Middle East, but thousands come from Nimrud where most were excavated in the storerooms of a military arsenal built by King Shalmaneser II (858-824 bc). When the Nimrud palace was sacked in the 7th century bc, these ivories were thrown into a well, where Sir Max Mallowan (the husband of Agatha Christie) discovered them in 1951. The monumental wall relief (1943.246) was found at the same Assyrian palace at Nimrud.

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  • Title: Decorative Plaque: Man; and Griffin in Combat
  • Date Created: 900-800 BC
  • Physical Dimensions: Overall: 6.5 x 3.9 cm (2 9/16 x 1 9/16 in.)
  • Provenance: British School of Archaeology in Iraq, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Type: Ivory
  • Rights: CC0
  • External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1968.45
  • Medium: ivory
  • Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
  • Culture: Phoenician, Iraq, Nimrud, 9th-8th Century BC
  • Credit Line: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
  • Collection: Near Eastern Art
  • Accession Number: 1968.45
The Cleveland Museum of Art

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